Best Monitors Under $500

[Matt Ludwig]

Thanks guys, I was originally considering the BX8s and the KRK's. I had never heard anything about the Yorkville. And in regards to Behringer, I have a mixer by them and I'm really longing for another mixer built by someone else. After about a year and a half of use some of the stereo channels cut out, and there is a lot of leaking from channel to channel, especially with loud sources. I'm not considering them because of the expirience. I think I'll go with the BX8s because of their price and power. I'll take a trip down to Guitar Center soon. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Sean McHenry]

I don't remember anyone mentioning all this about the Behringers back when I was asking about them on these forums a while ago. I might have gone a different direction. Still, politics aside, they are pretty highly rated by users.

What about the Samson Mackie look alikes? Forgot the model number off hand.

I'm not saying Behringer is perfect, what company is 100% perfect but, I have been using a 10 ch mixer, their B1 mic and the 2031A monitors.

I think there are a lot of Mackie imitators out there. Alesis has their inexpensive mixers built, it look like, on the same chassis as Behringer. I'll look at other brands more seriously next time as a result of Douglas's comments. I don't want to contribute to bad ethics. (insert joke about republicans/democrats here)

Sean

[Adam Lubkin]

For a small room (9.5' by 13') where I'll be back about 4' from the wall where the monitors are mounted, would the bx5s be better than the bx8s, or is bigger better? I was told that with the smaller monitors, given how close to them I'll be, that the bass and treble would balance better.

[Mark Olsen]

I must say i dont agree with you Douglas. I have been working on quite a few types of studio-monitors by now (i am a musician), and the behringers give a lot of bang-for-the-buck, and allthough not comparing to the bigger monitors like the Adams, they still play decent compared to the price.

My recommendation would be on the Tannoy Reveal Active. I have been working with these monitors for quite a while, and they give you a nice, uncoloured sound, and play at a decent volume as well.

Mark

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Mark Olsen

I must say i dont agree with you Douglas. I have been working on quite a few types of studio-monitors by now (i am a musician),
...
Mark

Hmmm, I heard somewhere that Douglas is also a musician and I think he's done a bit of TV and movie work as well. <grin>

[Mark Fry]

I too am looking for a pair of powered monitor speakers in this price range (GBP 250 - 300), and so this thread is very interesting.

I need the speakers for two different purposes:
1) For video editing on a PC: most of the audio on my productions is location sound - voices, passing trains, etc. I only occasionally use music or voice-overs. The computer and video equipment live in my "den", a small room lined with bookshelves, with almost no smooth hard surfaces except the ceiling.

2) 8-track music recording: I have a Yamaha MD8 8-track mini-disc recorder which I am currently using to record a folk band: vocals; accoustic instruments like guitar, concertina, etc; electric instruments - bass guitar, keyboard. Recording has been taking place in various spare bedrooms, and one of these rooms will probably be used for mixing too.

How much difference do the two applications make to the choice of monitors? Would any of the models praised so far (Tanoy, M-Audio, Yamaha) be unsuitable for either task? Or is the size and shape of the room more significant?

Other models that I have seen listed in the same price range are:
Tapco S8 & S5 (related to Mackie somehow?)
Fostex PM-1
Event TR-5
Alesis Monitor 1
Samson Rubicon & Resolve
Does anyone have any observations on any of these?

Many thanks

[Steve House]

I don't have any direct experience with those monitors but my opinion, for what it's worth, is that you should look first and foremost for accuracy. While you might also listen for the enjoyment of the music, you're buying monitors for business, not pleasure. You don't want something that sounds good unless the source material itself sounds good. If the source recording is flawed, you want monitors that will let you hear those flaws so you can work to fix them. And on the opposite side of the coin, you don't want monitors that introduce their own colouration and flaws either, as much as possible. Good recordings should sound good and bad recordings should sound bad.

[Michael Fossenkemper]

I listened to the BX8's and I thought they sounded horrible. could they get loud? yes. IMO, I haven't found a pair of self powered monitors for under $500 that sounded good. a good amp alone would run over $500. A good pair of monitors is a good pair of monitors regardless of what you are using them for.

[Matt Ludwig]

Are the KRK's really that bad? Because I was out of town I couldn't get my hands on the BX8's at the $300 price. I'm really considering the KRK RP8's...All the reviews I read everywhere else are good. Please let me know more in detail about what you didn't like about them...

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Matt Ludwig

Are the KRK's really that bad? Because I was out of town I couldn't get my hands on the BX8's at the $300 price. I'm really considering the KRK RP8's...All the reviews I read everywhere else are good. Please let me know more in detail about what you didn't like about them...

I A/B tested both the KRK RP8 and the KRK V8 a fw weeks ago against Yorkville Sound YSM1P, Mackie 824, Genlec 1030a, DynAudio BM5, DynAudio BM6 and IMHO they sounded terrible. Very muddy and poorly defined bass and midrange and very coarse and rough sounding highs to my ears. YMMV

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Steve House

I A/B tested both the KRK RP8 and the KRK V8 a fw weeks ago against Yorkville Sound YSM1P, Mackie 824, Genlec 1030a, DynAudio BM5, DynAudio BM6 and IMHO they sounded terrible. Very muddy and poorly defined bass and midrange and very coarse and rough sounding highs to my ears. YMMV

I don't know if I'd stretch to "terrible" but the KRK in my opinion are not as good as any in the list above, and moreover, the way they sound really suggests they're not "designed" but rather paper and wood put together to look good and satisfy consumers rather than media creators. but someone must like them enough to buy them, as they're selling...

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Douglas Spotted Eagle

I don't know if I'd stretch to "terrible" but the KRK in my opinion are not as good as any in the list above, and moreover, the way they sound really suggests they're not "designed" but rather paper and wood put together to look good and satisfy consumers rather than media creators. but someone must like them enough to buy them, as they're selling...

"Terrible" may be overstating it and if one were listening to them without directly comparing to others they would probably sound reasonably decent and be acceptable for a home theatre or music system. But to my ears at least both the RP8 and the higher priced V8 were clearly outclassed by all the others in the list, including the lower cost Yorkvilles, in a direct shootout switching speakers mid-cut using selections from several CD's - "John Dunbar's Theme" from "Dances with Wolves," Diana Krall "The Girl in the Other Room," Kraftwerk "Tour de France," Sarah Brightman's "Harem" and "Nessun Dorma,"and your very own "Tenaya." Especially when coming off the Genlecs or the Dynaudios to either of the KRKs the impression could only be described as dramaticly worse and in order to give them a fair chance I had to fight the urge to immediately hit the button and dismiss the KRKs out of hand! The RP8's at $700 CDN/pair were noticably inferior IMHO to the Yorkvilles at $500 CDN/pair while the V8's at $1400 CDN/pair weren't any better than the Yorkies. Mackie 824s beat all three, but not by as big a margin over the Yorks as one might expect, and the Genlec and Dynaudios clearly won over the Mackie. The Genlecs and Dynaudios I rate as distinctively different sounding from each other but equally on top of the heap.

[Mark Fry]

We're getting a bit beyond the $500 budget of the original poster.

BTW - so far I've had no luck getting any of the local dealers to let me listen the various alternatives. I've only heard the BlueSky Media Desk and some Wharfdale Diamonds so far. The Blue Sky is interesting, but the Wharfdales were very "boomy"....

[Sean McHenry]

In defense of Douglas, he didn't say they sounded bad, I don't think. He is making a justifiable decision not to use Behringer due to their business model/ethics. I understand and applaud that. I just wish I had known back when I was looking around.

Sold the Tannoys for a while on my previous job. Most folks with smaller systems went with the Tapco units. Inexpensive Mackies by another name.

Sean

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Sean is exactly right. For me, the sound is important, obviously. But ethics are more important. No company in the history of MI (that I've ever heard of in 26 years of attending NAMM) has ever been sued as many times as Behringer.
I can't abide a company with their horrible tech support and lack of creative thought. I used to be a lot less caring about this until some schmuck ripped off VASST for thousands of dollars when he copied our product in some ways and then redirected a few websites related to our name, my name, and products to his own competing website. Now I realize more than ever, how important ethics are. It's also one of the reasons I left a very popular website as a moderator of more than a dozen forums; ethics are important. I'm very happy that the DVInfo.net doesn't allow unethical behavior of any sort here.

As far as the sub 500.00 price point, there are a lot of monitors out there that will work. One thing not mentioned is that in this price bracket you'll have to make compromises, unfortunately. I'd be looking at used for more bang, but that's just me.

Mark Olsen...I'm a musician too. Maybe different music than you, but I'd dare say I've got some projects under my belt. http://www.spottedeagle.com/credits.htm if you're interested. :-)